Secession

Summary States form when people band together to seek mutual protection and to facilitate trade and commerce. The optimal size of any given state is not a constant, depending upon the perceived threat of violence from external actors, access to foreign markets, the imposition of geographies and the costs of friction. Friction arises from differences […]

More depressingly belligerent statements in the context of the Catalan desire for an independence referendum. A few days ago, a Catalan businessman at the Barcelona Mobile Technologies Congress refused to shake hands with Felipe de Borbón (the Prince of Asturias), denouncing him as “no friend” and citing the government’s opposition to the proposed referendum[1]. That […]